Mister Legend

Chapter 540 The Darkest Hour
时间：2021年10月24日下午四点43分；场地：老特拉福德；比赛：英超No.12轮。

Amidst the tsunami-like celebrations of more than 7 home team fans at the scene, the special camera of the broadcaster quickly switched from the goal scorer Rashford, presenting Li Moody, who was frowning on the sidelines, in hundreds of millions In front of the eyes of the audience, and in their ears, the voice of the famous commentator O'Hagan of Sky Sports was heard at the same time. With a great reputation, he was finally reused by the leaders this season and began to take over the commentary work of the national league.

"Rashford's excellent striker's sense helped him get this opportunity that was not a chance. But more than half of the credit for this goal should be credited to Arsenal's young midfielder Ben Shef. His pass error gave the United striker the opportunity to face Leno directly, which made the Gunners' situation even more passive."

"Now the game time has come to 86 minutes, and the score is 2 to 0. Considering the sluggish state of the visiting team in the recent period and the situation of no one available, it should be difficult for them to get points from their old opponents. And once they defeat Old Trafford, this will be the third consecutive defeat for Arsenal. The ninth round two weeks ago and the tenth round before the national team match day, they have already Falling at the feet of Manchester City and West Ham United, and next week will challenge the mighty Atletico Madrid in the Champions League away, Coach Li must be in a bad mood at the moment."

His partner, former Liverpool star Carragher, responded: "In fact, this game is just a microcosm of Arsenal after the start of the season. As the defending champions of the Premier League, their performance in the first quarter of the season It is really bad at the historical level, which is far beyond the expectations of the outside world. Especially Coach Li, who has been considered synonymous with success and the darling of the goddess of luck, seems to have lost all his magic power overnight. People were stunned."

"If we lose today - in my opinion, there should be no doubts, then even if the record of 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses in the first twelve rounds is far better than that of Chelsea in the 2014-15 season, it can still be called One of the worst start records of the Premier League defending champions. You must know that in the last season, they only lost two games in total, and the contrast between them is really big."

As a professional football commentator, O'Hagan's position is more fair than the retired player's Carragher. He immediately opened his mouth to defend the Gunners coach who still has a huge influence in the world, especially in the Far East: " I don't think Coach Lee's magic is gone anymore, but I have [-] sympathies for his bad luck."

"During the summer transfer window, Arsenal made a series of big adjustments, which is actually very difficult to see in the defending champions, because usually a team that has achieved success will try to keep it as much as possible. own stable environment. But from the point of view at the time, most people still have to lament that Coach Li is indeed a super trader in the player transfer market. Welbeck’s transfer fee has brought in Jadon Sancho and Rico Henry and other local future stars with outstanding potential, and his superhuman vision for team building is still admirable.”

"More importantly, while focusing on the future, Coach Li did not cause the team's immediate combat power to decline. This is so rare. After signing the Bosnian national team for free After Govic, Moroccan central defender Benatia and England's native full-back Mark Albrighton, Arsenal's lineup thickness has also become better, and they are still the most powerful contenders for the championship in the eyes of the outside world .”

"It's a pity that there was an unexpected situation. Just when they were full of ambition and preparing to show their strengths in the new season, a terrible wave of injuries swept the entire Gunners camp. First, they lost the team's defender in the pre-season Community Shield. Defensive core Diego Llorente, the Spain international had to recuperate for four to five months due to a torn knee ligament and has yet to return. Then he lost top scorer Lacazette in the UEFA Super Cup, France The situation of the striker is even worse, he can only be treated by surgery, and maybe he will be reimbursed directly for the season. For this reason, Coach Li had to sign another French striker Moussa Dembe with a high price at the last moment before the transfer window closed Lai, the result is not very ideal."

"This 25-year-old French fringe international with excellent physical talent and a lot of experience in the Soviet Super League and Ligue 600 suffered serious symptoms of acclimatization in the first three months of his landing in England, and he seemed to forget in an instant. The feeling of scoring a goal. As of today, he has played a total of eleven times in various competitions, and the cumulative time has been [-] minutes, but he still has not scored a goal. He is considered to be the top five in team history. Parallel imports."

"In addition, as the schedule progressed, several other famous glass men in the team, such as Wilshere and Ramsey, also suffered injuries to varying degrees, which seriously affected the head coach's formation. Four days ago, Barko, the core of the offensive playmaker, fell in the Champions League again, which gave the Gunners the nickname of the No. [-] football ward in North London. Faced with such a rare injury situation, Coach Li is also a clever woman. It's understandable that the record fell far short of people's expectations."

Carragher also agrees with this point of view, but considering the competitive relationship between his home team Liverpool and the Gunners, he did not echo his partner's words too much, but made fun of Arsenal's main brush .

"When I first heard Coach Lee's name in 2016, I knew his stalk related to the goddess of luck, because the Turin team at that time could always get good luck at critical moments. And what Arsenal are facing now The wave of injuries is the first time I have seen it in more than 20 years since I joined the Liverpool first team. It seems that luck is really unpredictable. Maybe this is also a manifestation of the overall conservation of good and bad luck? The debts owed before are now Pay it off in one go!"

"Haha, no kidding, I still hope that the bad luck of the Gunners can pass as soon as possible. It's just that their record has been pulled too far by Manchester City. After Blue Moon won Leeds United three hours ago, they have already lost their instant record. It has been improved to 11 wins and 1 draw, leading Arsenal by 18 points, which has basically declared the latter's defending defeat. Moreover, the Gunners are currently in a poor situation in the Champions League group stage. After two rounds, they only scored two goals. Points, and the opponent's strength is very strong, the prospects are really not very bright!"

"But often in the most difficult times, whether a team and a coach are worthy of top evaluation will be clearly displayed in front of the world. They must be united and use super willpower to survive. These difficulties, otherwise it will not be qualified to become a recognized champion team." O'Hagan is still willing to give more encouragement, but the current situation of the Premier League defending champion is indeed worrying. "For this Arsenal team, I am still quite optimistic. I believe that after some of the main players can return around Christmas, their performance will definitely rebound sharply, but the results of this season are very likely... "

"Oh... before the end of the game, there was another sudden situation on the field. Torreira made too much tackle when defending, brought down the home team's Pogba, and was directly sent off by the referee. Assen Nazhen's woes coincided with Lian Yeyu, and this main midfielder will miss at least the next two league games. Including Endidi, who was unable to play in this game due to accumulated yellow cards, their staff reduction frequency is really too dense. They are all making problems for Coach Li!"

In the end, Manchester United defeated their rivals Arsenal 2-0 in this focus battle.The next day, many newspapers in the UK hung photos of the Gunners coach with a sad face on the front page, and most of the headlines were negative comments such as "Oriental magicians are helpless" and "Arsenal continues to be lost".

The "Sun" even broke the big news that Li Moody was about to be dismissed, but it was quickly denied by Arsenal officials. In an interview that night, Josh Kroenke, the club's director, reiterated their respect for the team coach. trust, but this cannot change the outside world's various speculations about the Gunners. Even the Chinese media believe that their pride is going through the darkest moment of their coaching career, and they don't know when they will see the light.

On Monday morning, all Arsenal players who canceled the post-match leave did not train, but were pulled into the conference room by the head coach, and watched the movie "Darkest Hour" starring Oscar winner Gary Oldman, hoping to use This story tells how Winston Churchill inspired the confidence of the British people in the Anti-Japanese War and finally won the anti-Japanese war, so as to arouse everyone's supreme fighting spirit to fight against the current difficult environment.Never give up, never compromise, this is the goal that Li Moody hopes all players can achieve.

And the effect of this collective activity is not bad. With the incomplete lineup, the Gunners fought tenaciously from Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano in the middle of the week without being favored by the outside world. The draw saved the team's hope of qualifying for the knockout rounds.

Facing the leaders of La Liga this season, Arsenal, who mainly focus on defensive counterattack tactics, finally showed the demeanor of some of the world's giants, especially the fighting spirit of the midfielders. They were not suppressed by the iron army Atletico Madrid. It is rare.

Last season was the harvest season for the Sheets Corps. Diego Simeone, who entered the year of knowing his destiny, led the team to win the No.11 La Liga championship trophy in team history, and at the same time successfully won the King's Cup. - After the 1995 season, it was the second time in history to complete the double crown in a single season, stepping on the top two teams of the Western Super League, Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​under his feet, and together with Li Moody, he became a world football figure in mid-May.

However, the Argentine iron coach whose contract is about to expire and has been reported by countless media that he will go to Italy to coach another old club Inter Milan still has an unfulfilled wish, which is to help Atletico Madrid win the first Champions League.

So in order not to leave deep regrets for his coaching career, he persuaded the club chairman Enrique Cerezo to use a high salary in the summer to keep Griezmann, who was constantly being lured by other giants, and spent another The powerful Spanish winger Inaki Williams was introduced from Athletic Bilbao for 5000 million euros, and the Portuguese international Andre Silva, who joined from AC Milan last summer, formed an impressive team. A formidable combination of attacks.

In the first ten league rounds of this season, it was because of their super attack power that Atletico Madrid was able to achieve the best start in team history with 9 wins and 1 loss, and continued to suppress the two giants in the La Liga standings.The first two rounds of the Champions League group stage also achieved two consecutive victories, including a three-goal victory over the impressive Lyon team at home, showing the strong strength of the favorites to win the championship.

Facing Arsenal, which has fallen into a super low, this scene, whether it is the Atletico Madrid team or the outside world, believes that it is likely to be a big victory after a half-time offensive and defensive drill.

It’s just that the process of the game was quite different from everyone’s expectations. Not only did Li Moody not give in in the away game, but he played an attack-on-offensive game. With the Spanish high center forward Chuma as the bridgehead, he constantly used the crosses from the two wings to attack Gogo. After Ding left the team due to his age, the Atletico Madrid defense lacked stability.

Although Simeone planned to ignore it at the beginning, hoping to press the opponent back through his own offense, but after Arsenal still did not change their style of play after 10 minutes of the game, he couldn't help but take the lead. Made adjustments.Although Jimenez and Savage are also world-renowned central defenders, they still have a headache in the face of Chuma's stunned rampage, and once the second point is obtained by the Gunners, whether it is Barco or Torreira's long-range shots are extremely threatening and have to be guarded against.

As a result, after making adjustments, although the home team basically blocked the Gunners' high-flying tactics, it also interfered with their own offensive rhythm, and the two teams immediately fell into a stalemate.
The key point that led to a big change in the situation did not appear until the No.70 minute of the second half. Arsenal's current main striker Beracino was injured in a fight, and Golovin, who could take his place, was still in the calf muscle During the recovery period of the injury, the impact of the visiting team on the wing dropped sharply, and finally it was unable to contain Atletico Madrid's defensive energy.

Simeone can finally confidently and boldly command the team to attack with all their strength, but in the last 10 minutes of the game, he failed to break through the Gunners' defense, which looked precarious and might collapse at any time, so he had no choice but to accept a draw.

After the game, before the media could praise Arsenal's tenacious style, a sudden piece of news grabbed the headlines of the major media. Many team doctors of the Arsenal club resigned collectively, allowing the defending Premier League champion to once again enter the world. The cusp of football.

(End of this chapter)